Linseed oil

[Sgian Dubh]

I see JFC that there has been plenty of discussion since last I looked so no need to go over some of it again.

I must add that I'd avoid pure oil finishes for internal parts that remain enclosed most of the time, i.e., cabinet interiors, doors, drawers, etc.. The smell is a bit of a maggot gagger.

Also many aren't fond of linseed oil and tung oil on wood used for food preparation on the grounds that they add taste to the food and go rancid. I'm not sure of that as I've never put either linseed oil or tung oil on things like chopping boards. That's probably because I think I've only ever made one chopping board in my life and I leave it bare. Slainte.

 

[engineer one]

and there was me thinking linseed oil was only to be used
on cricket bats :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

i think a lot of the problems with any finishing is the time
it takes the oil, tung/danish or ikea??? to soak in to the wood.

in all cases the process seems to be flood, then remove excess.
the question often is how long before you remove the excess.

actually i once re-finished a cutlery box with lots of coats of
vaseline. nice soft finish which is semi-matt.

paul :wink:

 

[woodbloke]

A very good treatise on oil polishing is to be found in Alan Peter's book,
Cabinet Making, the Professional Approach', now out of print.
Use a solution of 50% raw linseed oil and white spirit, applied liberally over of many days until the timber no longer absorbs the oil. Ensure that there is no build up of any surplus oil anywhere and leave for several weeks to harden, and then lightly sand. Then in the second stage, use neat oil as polish, putting on and removing each night for about a week. Leave to dry for another week at least though usually much longer and then use several very sparse coats of Danish oil to obtain a degree of top protection and sheen. Finally, the top can be cut back with very fine wire wool and wax.
I tried this method on a large oak coffee table top and it produced a fantastic finish which was impervious to almost everything except a lighted fag but it took about three or four months to finish and absorbed over a quart of oil! I eventually gave it to my daughter to use in her student house in Southhampton.....best not to try and describe what was on it when we visited her, suffice to say it would have done justice to the Queen Vic.

As an aside, Peters no longer recommends polishing with Vaseline as it doesn't set hard, and if you want a quick finish, spray it with lacquer. I also agree with the comment about not using linseed oil on drawer interiors etc, so I now use Lemon Oil - Rob

 

[engineer one]

i agree vaseline is bloody hard work, would not have wanted to
do it on anything bigger than 12x12x4 inches.
would still be doing it :lol: :lol: :lol:

paul :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

An update to this topic

For my current workbench project, I purchased some Rustins boiled Linseed oil and used it today. The time to touch-dry was about 2 hours :roll:

I can only think that my older bottle of boiled Linseed oil (not frustins) was faulty on some way as the drying time was so ridiculously long.

I love Linseed, it gives a beautiful warm color ot oak and some other wwods I regualrly use

 

[Anonymous]

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[Alf]

...linseed......on metal as a rust preventer...

There speaks someone who hasn't had to remove the stuff again after it's been on for 40 years or so. Nasty, sticky, evil stuff - picking it all off this #46 by hand was more than enough to convince me I'd shoot the next person I saw doing it...

 

[Anonymous]

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[misterfish]

Hi

I've used boiled linseed oil, tung oil and danish oil to finish items and usually manage to get good results. On the beech work surface I used the recommended finish (I can't remember the formula) that seemed to be a mixture - that involved loads of coats, wiping off excess and VERY light sanding between coats to end up with a good smooth surface. Despite our best efforts it was always a battle to kee it waterproof behind the inset sink - water tended to lay on the surface unnoticed for a while and then seep through and darken the wood.

Anyway, I digress. The important point is to read the small print on the container - the bit about spontaneous combustion! In the previous house we had an extension with a new kitchen and the floor was covered with terracotta tiles which had to be liberally soaked with boiled linseed oil to seal them. I wiped up the excess oil with a wadge of kitchen towel and left it planning to continue later. When we got back after lunch and as soon as we opened the front door the smoke alarm started screaming - a quick look through the window showed the room filling with smoke from the kitchen towel. Being a bit foolhardy I grabbed a couple of offcuts of hardboard that were fortunately nearby and holding my breath rushed in and picked up the smoking paper between the boards and then deposited it out on the patio at which instant it burst into flames! The terracotta tile on which it was sitting was permanently scorched and always appeared as a salient reminder.

I am now always extremely careful with any rags or kitchen roll that I have used with these oily products and put them in the woodburning stove after use.

So please, everybody be aware of this. If it had happened in my current (all timber) workshop, the consequnces would have been disasterous.

MisterFish

 

[MIGNAL]

I recently tried the gunstock finish Tru-oil and have been very impressed. If you are prepared to put in the time it can actually finish looking more like an old time oil varnish finish which some people consider the ultimate. On the label it states that it contains a blend of oils but I suspect that these are highly polymerised because this stuff dries pretty fast, probably contains driers as well. Unfortunately it is very expensive.

 

[Scrums]

I've only recently rediscovered Danish Oil, I've still got an English Ash display cabinet that I built about 20 years ago and I first used it on that. I can remember being disappointed at the time that it darkened the wood a lot, it was also quite 'sticky' for a while.

However I'm now starting to use it quite a lot - but always 50/50 with white spirit. I find this speeds up the drying and gets more penetration.

At present I'm using cheapo Toolstation stuff rather than Rustins - and in a comparison between that and some quite expensive Liberon Tung oil. I found little difference.

Chris.

 

[Anonymous]

I use danish, boiled lin seed, and also teak oils for variuos project's. Iused to use oil paint cut with real turps to a cream consisitency to make color glaze's.
After seeking advice on the forum I now mix about 50% danish (genuine thick rustins) and 50% real turps plus artists oil paint. The danish strengthens the glaze considerably. I also add a touch of tereben juice to acelerate and it is always rub proof dry next day even left in cold garage overnight (IE even if I rub with a cloth, no color comes off of the surface) I use the scothbite pads to cut back nibs etc and apply another glaze usually a different colour. Have had no problems with bleed through or resolventising the previous coat. I use boiled oil sometimes instead of danish to make glaze's, no bother with that either. BUT as folks have said it is esential to be sure you got every last little puddle mopped up (I too flood, leave for about 15-60 minutes depending on particular color, type of wood etc then wipe ecxess away I use big piece's of old towel's and a big soft bristle brush to blend area's where theres sharp corners where even a towel cannot get in) If left the little puddles will harden and leave shiny hard spots that can be unsightly depending on the level of pristineness you are aiming for, theyre easy to miss under electric light. And the 50/50 real turps/danish or boiled oil mix with no added color works fine as well as a base for a wax finish.

 

[Pekka Huhta]

A very good treatise on oil polishing is to be found in Alan Peter's book,
Cabinet Making, the Professional Approach', now out of print.
Use a solution of 50% raw linseed oil and white spirit, applied liberally over of many days until the timber no longer absorbs the oil.

...

I tried this method on a large oak coffee table top and it produced a fantastic finish which was impervious to almost everything except a lighted fag but it took about three or four months to finish and absorbed over a quart of oil!

This is the way that wooden boats are "impregnated" over here. Really impregnated with linseed oil, as oil is applied as long as the wood possibly is taking it. I've been impregnating a 12-metre long "Storbåt", which took about 250 litres of linseed, half a barrel of pine turpentine and the same of tar. 60+ applications over a period of 3 months. A small (row)boat can be impregnated by throwing in a bucket or two of oil and sloshing it around until the oil starts coming straight through the planking, which takes a week or so. So a full quart goes to your overalls only


I'm using linseed as a part of almost all finishes. It's not a good finish, but it makes a great lustre in the wood under the final coats. As just an oiled surface... nope. Just for breadboards or small pretty things standing on the mantelpiece. But under oil based varnish, shellac, wax, everything. And there is no need of waiting it to dry. Oil based varnish will just bond nicely if the first coat is applied to a fresh oil surface. It just takes a bit longer to cure. Shellac can be applied straight over a wiped surface as well. And wax, of course.

My basic finish is just two-three coats of linseed, short wait, two-three coats of shellac, wait, rub with 000 steel wool and a home-brewn wax made from beeswax, pine turps, pine tar, linseed oil. It takes half a day to do a good sized bookshelf and if you use proper furniture oil to wipe the shelf once or twice a year it also stays good looking. Can't tell for longer time than 10+ years, but at least that long.

Pekka

P:S,

...linseed......on metal as a rust preventer...

There speaks someone who hasn't had to remove the stuff again after it's been on for 40 years or so. Nasty, sticky, evil stuff - picking it all off this #46 by hand was more than enough to convince me I'd shoot the next person I saw doing it...

Before slinging your revolver and wasting a bullet, please consider spending the same money to old style soft soap. Probably any kind of liquid soap would work, but old style soft lye soap (potash soap, I don't know and the dictionary won't help me either) seems to work best.

They used lye to remove paint, right? And lye soap is just oil added to the lye. So, the linseed gummed to the surface is just mixing with the lye left in the soap. Or at least that way I've figured it out, but it really works.

It's a really mild "paint stripper" and I guess any alkaline liquid soap might do the same trick.

 

[Philly]

Just a thought-do we really need to keep applying oil until the wood "will take no more". Is this a good thing???
I think this approach is more to do with the materials available at the time. Today we have some wonderful finishes available that don't require six months to apply them. I love the look of "oil" finishes (i.e. finishes that are "in" the wood, not a thick film on top) but the traditional method seems OTT. I'm sure the finishing was completed by the house staff NOT the cabinetmaker.
The new types of oil (like Chestnuts Finishing Oil) have a larger amount of resins added so they build up a hard finish quicker (but still "in" the timber) This means you dont have to keep applying coat after coat until the timber is saturated. I don't see how saturating the timber can actualy be a benefit-who wants a large amount of oil saturated timber sat on their best carpets??? :lol:
Cheers
Philly

 

[engineer one]

i always thought that one of the ideas about flooding with oil was to re-arrange the moisture content of the wood, and help settle movement.

but then on things like this i could be as wrong as usual :lol:

paul :wink:

 

[David C]

Philly,

I'm sure you are right, but there is something totally wonderful about the slow oil process.

We have done it a number of times on Oak and Elm coffee table tops, with amazing results.

The work does not take that long but extends over about six weeks.

I use Raw Linseed, Pure turps and a little Terebene (Driers). The driers ensures that the oil is not sloshing about in the interior!

Can also confirm that Vaseline is a long term disaster due to never drying. I phoned Alan Peters one day and asked what he was doing. Stripping and refinishing an early piece! The vaseline simply encouraged dirt and dust to stick in the pores.

David Charlesworth

 

[Anonymous]

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[Alf]

Yeah, it's caution wot makes me do it all by hand. You can't tell what's underneath to ruin, thus I only use chemicals of any sort on the utterly rusty and can't-get-any-worse candidates. Linseed is great on wood, but please, not on metal. [-o<

Cheers, Alf

 

[Pekka Huhta]

Just a thought-do we really need to keep applying oil until the wood "will take no more". Is this a good thing???
I think this approach is more to do with the materials available at the time. Today we have some wonderful finishes available that don't require six months to apply them. I love the look of "oil" finishes (i.e. finishes that are "in" the wood, not a thick film on top) but the traditional method seems OTT. I'm sure the finishing was completed by the house staff NOT the cabinetmaker.

I'd say I hardly wouldn't go through all that trouble if it was "just" furniture, but the "floating furniture" is a different game. On boats you just fill the wood so there is no place for the water to get in, or at least create a thick surface of impregnated wood as a barrier between the untreated wood and water. Varnish gets only a few cells deep to the wood, oil gets really, really much deeper.

But on the other hand the most beautiful pieces of oak were the ones I threw to the oil bucket and kept there for months just to wait if I needed a piece of well-impregnated wood. I didn't at the time, but boy they look good now.

Or caustic soda. We kept a permanent bucketful in a corner of our workshop and dropped bits of old ironmongery and brassware in. Works brilliantly on cast iron and brass. Some metals (aluminium) react so some alloys might also - so caution with potentially valuable bits.

That's the reason for the soap, caution. Always use the gentlest possible method. I know soap won't bite to rock-hard lead oxide paint used on sash hardware (or at least takes ages to work) so I have a separate jar of potash (sold for opening your sewers) for that.

I'm doing everything by hand as well when restoring anything, but I've learned that soap won't hurt anything and practically I make more damage by mechanical scraping and rubbing. Softened oil needs only a nylon or brass brush.

Other nasty thing about linseed on metal is that all dirt in the world sticks to the surface until the oil cures.

I use just thin shellac on metal surfaces that aren't supposed to look shiny or are subject to abrasion. It doesn't look that bad on an old tool and all it takes to take it away is a alcohol rag. And being brownish it gives a bit of patina to the surface. They are built for using anyway, tools

Pekka

 

[Shivers]

raw linseed oil is full of other byproducts that don't necessarily oxidize(set),boiled is better as it has been refined of all contaminants,a good version of this is the american watco oil(super refined but with other aditives).



shivers